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9/29/2020 0 Comments And Then There Were Two... Pretty Lizzy went to her new home today. Another awesome family...Richard and Cheryl Haller and their three kids - Madison (22), Marisa (20) and Chase (16) - previously owned by a Centurion Dalmatian. They've been looking for a new one - preferably related - for quite a while! Angie Henderson put us in touch and everything fell into place! Lizzy's registered name is Juju N Onsengeltje Here Comes the Sun. Very fitting for this happy girl! She is Futurity nominated. The Hallers are excited about showing! (The kids aren't in the photo because Richard and Sheryl decided to surprise them tonight!) Like both families yesterday, the Haller's are local St. Louis. I feel so lucky that almost all of this litter will live nearby! Of course, Lizzy got a bath in the kitchen sink this afternoon and then hung out with us there awaiting her new family's arrival. She immediately spotted the latest shipment of dog food! Last night Lizzy, Rita and Jo Jo each slept in individual crates. They all went out to the yard and did their business about 11:30. Not a peep from them until around 6:30 this morning and no accidents in any of the crates. Good puppies! Imagine that! Tonight, Rita, Jo Jo and Rhani got to play in the family room for a bit. They ran and ran and played with Rhani, but after 3 poops, 4 or 5 pees, several attacks on electric cords, and pulling up the Berber carpet, I decided that was enough, so out to the patio we went again! Before we went, Rita and Jo Jo both ran up the stairs but were too chicken to come down on their own. Maybe tomorrow they will master that! Enjoy the photos and little video. Until next time...
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9/28/2020 1 Comment What A Day! I was not mentally prepared for the way today went. I thought all the puppies would be here at least until tomorrow... Where to begin! This morning I rearranged the inside pen to allow for more crates so individual puppies could sleep alone before going to their new homes. (They did great last night all in one wire crate with the door shut. I put them in there around 11PM and they didn't make a peep until after 6AM this morning. The blanket on top of the crate pad was a little damp so I think someone had an "accident", but when I went down about 6:40 and opened the door on the crate they all barreled out and made a beeline for the grass mat to commence doing their business! What good puppies! Imagine that!) Funny story....After I got the pen re-organized, I went upstairs to do some stuff and heard much commotion down there. I told Dave they were playing with the empty plastic lemonade bottle. Nope, they had dragged the smaller crate out into the middle of the pen and pulled the cute fleece halfway out through the wires! That crate is now zip-tied to the "courtyard kennel" panels! The puppies are officially little dogs with a whole lot of strength! Then, it's Monday...so pedicures for all the puppies were in order! Today we did it like big dogs on the grooming table. Oh my....that made a big difference in how fast I could get them done! Glad they are finally big enough for that! After that, the dominos starting falling! I heard from one of the families who was planning to get their puppy on Wednesday, that they got back early and could pick her up anytime. Poof! There goes Sadie! We love Sadie! She reminds us of Lucy and Raj with her beautiful face and ever-wagging tail. When the Dodson's came to make their choice of the puppies I offered them on Thursday last week, she sold herself hard to them! This is an awesome home! Michael is Elaine Dodson's grandson. Elaine was a lovely lady who bred Dalmatians and showed and competed in performance with her Dalmatians for many, many years. Some of her line is in the pedigree of these puppies, so there is a family connection. Michael is in charge of the canine unit for the Lambert St. Louis Airport - TSA/Homeland Security. He previously handled a bomb detection dog in Iraq and trained military canines at the base in TX. I think Scent Work and Tracking, as well as Conformation are in Sadie's future. But the biggest things in her future are a lot of love and fun with a great family! Michael and Ina have three children - Ezra, age 13 months who shares these puppies' birthday!; Makayla, age 11; and Sienna, age 13. And we must not forget, Chip, Michael's retired detection dog, age 5. Tears were shed as I said good-bye, but I will see her often as they live nearby, and she is going to have a great life! Juju N Onsengeltje She Loves You (AKA Sadie - at least for now) will be Futurity Nominated.
While I was working on getting Sadie a bath and pulling her paperwork together, I got an email from the person who was considering a show boy letting me know that he just couldn't make a decision right now. That was the next domino to fall! After a few emails, it was decided that Maxwell would also go to his new home today! Another AWESOME family! I met Valerie and one of her daughters one day while I was laying down one of my sidewalk chalk messages at Long View farms. She told me how she and Mike had a Dalmatian when they were first married. They lost him when their triplet daughters - Amelia, Campbell and Riley, now 17 - were 3 years old, and have not had a dog since but always wanted another Dalmatian. I told her we were planning puppies and to look us up if they were interested. Well she did and the rest is history! They have visited the puppies every week since they were born, been completely open to whatever puppy I had for them, didn't just visit but actively worked with the puppies while they were here each time, and ultimately welcomed the opportunity to try out the show ring! What a lovely family. Parting with Maxwell was a tough choice. He and Jo Jo are very similar in quality for the show ring, but Maxwell is as sweet as the day is long and Jo Jo is a bit of a pill. I love them both dearly and am so so lucky that Maxwell is nearby and I will also get to see him often and mentor the family as they work towards his AKC championship. Juju N Onsengeltje Here We Go Again - AKA Maxwell will also be Futurity nominated. Baths for Max and Sadie were "fun"! We did them in the big kitchen sink. Their favorite parts were getting rubbed dry in a big fluffy towel and climbing up and down the stairs to and from the lower level! They also enjoyed running around the kitchen with little to no supervision. There are only a couple little teeth marks on one of the kitchen table chair legs! LOL! They were so soft and smelled so good after their baths! Tomorrow, Lizzy will go to her home, and next weekend, Rita will go to hers. It already seems so much more quiet. And yes, Jo Jo will stay with us! It was an emotional day for me. Today should have been our Raj's 8th birthday. Losing him last January scarred me for life. I love all my dogs, but I've never lost one before they reached a reasonable old age until Raj last January. He was such a good funny boy and everyone in this house misses him to this day. Sadie and Maxwell most remind us of their Grandpa Raj so saying good-by to them on this day was hard. But it was also easy because they went to such loving homes so nearby and both families will help preserve his legacy. We try to look forward and remember that Every Day Really Is A Gift! I leave you with some favorite images of our sweet Raj, grandpa to these beautiful Imagine babies Until next time.... 9/27/2020 0 Comments We Are Ready! It is time for the puppies to move to their forever families! They need to bond with their people now and not each other. Hopefully, we can sort out all the final details in the next few days that will enable that to happen. All the puppies have a home, but the dominos are still falling in terms of who goes where for a few of them! Have I mentioned how much they love shoe laces? This is their preferred method - three puppies on one shoe! Repeat visitors keep wearing tie shoes, so I guess they don't mind the gnashing of teeth at their feet! Today's repeat visitors included Steven and Cindy, joined by Mike this time, and Margot, Alex and Brittany. The puppies were wild and crazy for all involved. Steven and Cindy took them out into the yard and they had a blast.`Imagine that! Several visitors and blog followers have mentioned Jo Jo's "blue" eyes. They actually are not blue. Currently they are turning green. Eventually, they should be a nice dark brown. If they were blue, they'd be swimming pool blue. Tonight we (the puppies - not me!) are going to try sleeping in a wire crate with a closed door for the first time. Paws crossed I get some sleep! Here are some cute photos from today (and a couple from Friday that I missed!) and a video of Rhani playing with the pups tonight. Enjoy! Until next time.... The puppies are 8 weeks old today. So the only blogging tonight will be photos. 8 week mug shots plus 8 week stacked (sort of!) photos, and the collage of each puppy's head shots from 1 day to 8 weeks. That's all....no words. Imagine that! Except, I love these babies and will miss each and every one of them so much when they go! Enjoy! Until next time....            9/25/2020 1 Comment A Few More Days!Through a chain reaction of events, we have a few more days with all the Imagine puppies. I'm going to wait till all puppies are resolved to share any details because as soon as I say anything, something else will change! Just add this to the list of weird 2020 stuff! All puppies are going to have fantabulous homes. We just don't know for sure yet who goes where (except for 2 puppies). So Dave and I will have a few more mornings and evenings and afternoons with them! We are not too sad about that! Imagine that! Today was another BUSY day for the puppies and me! This morning Linda came over to help me take "stacked" photos of the little scamps! We didn't do too badly but we'll have a few do overs tomorrow. Dave will be drafted to help. I'll wait till I have them all to post. Then our hair stylist, Pat, came by to see the pups. Now they've met 58 people! Dave and Margot came next. The puppies slept through most of their visit! By then it was 2:30 going on 3, so the puppies went to their inside area for a bit so that poor Baili could get out of our bedroom for awhile. She and I grabbed a quick walk and then it was puppy time again with the Marino's. Oh boy, did the puppies have fun! They all went out in the yard together with the family to watch over them! They are pretty tired tonight and so am I! Until next time....   9/24/2020 0 Comments Rita, Rita, Rita... It's been another couple busy days! Yesterday, was eaten up by trying to get together paperwork for the puppies, but last evening, Walter and Peggy came over to evaluate the puppies for us and have dinner. It was so fun to see them! Walter was very impressed that all the puppies have such nice front assemblies and beautiful markings. He also thinks they will all have lovely heads. Today was filled with visitors! First was the Dodson family. We are very excited that one of the girls is going with them. What a great life with a 3 year old Lab, a 1 year old boy and two young daughters to fill her days. Tracking and Scent Work and maybe even Conformation will be in her future too! Michael and the family took each of the girls up to the screened porch to play with them. He exposed them to a paper grocery bag and an umbrella. All were unphased by either new object in their world. I'll take the boys up to the porch and give them those experiences tomorrow as well. Later the Sciortino's stopped by for a second visit. They recently lost their dog to cancer, so visiting puppies was good medicine for them. The puppies properly entertained them! No, they aren't taking one home. Finally, Cindy and Steven came over for Puppies on the Patio After Dark. They love the puppies and the puppies LOVE them! Steven once again entertained the puppies by making funny sounds, giving the puppies "roller coaster" rides, playing games of follow me, and on and on and on. The puppies have now met 57 different people since they were three weeks old. Jo Jo has totally mastered getting himself into the patio chairs and has decided that is his preferred place to sit, play, sleep! Max also managed to scramble up into my lap without help tonight. So why did I name tonight's blog, Rita, Rita, Rita? Because she's so stinking cute, sweet, and hysterically funny! In the words of our judge evaluator from Monday: "Rita is darling, I don't think she will be difficult to train. She is way too interested in everything and pays attentions to what is going on. I love dealing with attitude and spunk. You can tone them down as they get older, but you can't create that wonderful spark. They have it or they don't." I really can't keep a girl because I have two already and I really want a boy, but if I could... Rita is just on my mind as I try to figure out where she will go. Enjoy the photos and videos from the last two days. The first two videos are of Rhani playing with the babies last night - mostly with Rita! Until next time....
9/22/2020 1 Comment It's Final Exam Week! It's only Tuesday and the puppies have been through three evaluations already this week with another tomorrow! I already wrote about the temperament test on Sunday. Monday was their first structural evaluation by an AKC judge whom I respect a lot for her knowledge of canine structure and movement. Our friend, Linda, who also has a very good eye joined us. What I thought would be just an hour or two turned into 4+! It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot! I asked for brutal honesty. Overall, the evaluations were very positive especially related to movement - which is what Dalmatians are all about functionally. Of course, these little busy bees are not leash trained, but they followed me around the pool offering a great view of them coming and going as well as side gait. All have good extension and carry themselves well. Hooray! Each puppy has some things that could be better, but overall, they are a very consistent litter with no major faults. The judge felt all of them could be AKC Champions. They are not all going to homes interested in showing, but it is nice to know that they are structurally sound for an active life no matter what they do! Today was their visit to the veterinarian for wellness exams, first vaccinations, microchips and DNA blood draws for the OFA DNA Repository. (That's used by scientists conducting genetic research into various diseases and disorders. Having full litters can be especially helpful to studies if one of the puppies becomes affected by some condition.) This involved another car ride. Once again, there was much carrying on for a few minutes, but everyone eventually settled down. The noise really only came from two trouble makers - Jo Jo and Rita. All the puppies were pronounced healthy with good bites (meaning they have all their teeth and they are aligned properly in a nice scissor bite) and both boys have their boy parts! Shew. Sometimes the testicles don't drop and that's a problem. Yesterday, none of us could find Jo Jo's, but today, they magically appeared. I must interrupt my dialog to say - OMG - THEY ARE WOUND TIGHT TONIGHT! They have 537 things in their pen to play with, but I have had to shut my laptop at least 8 times in less than 30 minutes to stop them from - tearing up the pee pads under the grass mat, tearing up their sleeping mat, removing things from the table top, and to clean up an entire glass of lemonade that they removed from the table top! Imagine that! I may never get this finished! Ok - they have settled for the moment....Where was I? Oh yes - the vet visit. They gained a substantial amount of weight since Saturday. Maxwell is at 12 lbs 10 oz and Jo Jo is 12 lbs even. Lizzy (the piggy) is now larger than Sadie by an ounce. They weighed in at 11 lbs 13 oz and 11 lbs 12 oz. Even pretty petite Rita jumped to 9 lbs 2 oz. (Have I mentioned that they are eating better than they did for weeks?) Dr. Boillat checks each puppy's eyes, ears, mouth, heart and lung sounds, elbows, patellas, and all other key joints. Then they got their shots. No fuss for those. He put yummy nutricalc on the table, and they were too busy lapping that up to even notice the needle prick. After that came the microchips. That's a BIG needle, but everyone took that pretty well too. (Well Sadie and Jo Jo were not all that happy about it.) Finally was the blood draw. Drawing 3-5cc's of blood from a little puppy isn't the easiest thing to do, but Rita, Lizzy and Maxwell got through it with just one needle stick. Sadie was not having it, so they had to try both sides of her neck a couple times and her leg. Jo Jo took three tries. Well, we can't all be brave! No one was traumatized though, and now they are there in the database in the event they can help advance genetic research in the future. Dr. Boillat asked me to give his compliments to Rhani on producing such a healthy and pretty litter of pups! Congrats to Dewey too! Tomorrow evening a Dalmatian breeder friend will evaluate them. Then on Thursday and Friday, we will make decisions. All the families getting a puppy will be wonderful homes so we can't really make a bad decision. Just want to make the best ones! Wish us luck! Until next time....
9/20/2020 1 Comment Sitting Pretty! It was another hectic day at Juju Dals, but we had a few fun photos and a video to post, so here's a brief update before I get some sleep for another busy day tomorrow! I failed to schedule temperament tests for these puppies. Those are supposed to be done when they are 49 days old, so I did them myself this afternoon after my brother and niece headed home. That's not how they are supposed to be done. Someone the puppies have never met is supposed to do them in a place they've never been. I did them on the screened-in porch. Oh well, I still found it a valuable use of time and told me some things to keep an eye on for confirmation and confirmed some things I already knew. I have no fearful puppies and no total dominators. Some are more independent and headstrong than others. Some are more cautious. But they all should be a lot of fun for their people! After that, I tried to consolidate all the paper related to these puppies and sort through it to build a rather lengthy to do list of things to get done before they puppies can go to their homes. Gathering all the puppy applications to review for that last home I need to select, sales contracts, Purina Puppy Kits, AKC Puppy Kits, OFA forms for BAER and the DNA draw, Pedigrees, Registration Papers, etc., etc., etc. Steven and Cindy came over late this afternoon for a bit to play with puppies. Steven got a cute video of them practicing their "sit". He also took one of the puppies into the back of the yard to see if he could get it to follow him (something the puppy failed in the Temperament Test) and boy was he successful. They were all over the back of the yard with the puppy close behind him. Thank you, Steven! Then it was back to the puppy paperwork for me this evening followed by early nail trims for the puppies. No one totally melted down this week. Imagine that! Jo Jo was still not pleased about the whole deal, but nothing like last week. Shew! Tomorrow morning, we have the first of two structural evaluations (thus the reason for Sunday night pedicures!). The second will be Wednesday evening. I will make decisions about which puppy will go where (including who, if any, will stay here). I truly appreciate the patience of the three families who for sure are getting a puppy! Enjoy the photos and video! Until next time.... 9/19/2020 2 Comments 7 Weeks Old Today! It's been a busy and fun weekend visiting with my brother, niece, great nephew and his girlfriend! The puppies have been outside almost non-stop enjoying the beautiful weather and making us laugh. They broke the scale today! So we had to resort to using our old platform scale with Dave holding them. (I refused. I don't want to know how much I weigh!) Maxwell, Sadie and Jo Jo all weigh 11 lbs. Lizzy is almost 11 lbs, and Rita finally made it to 8 lbs! Most are beginning to lose that pudgy puppy look and turning into little dogs. You can see their little muscles working in their legs, and they are all strong! I began mixing in the All Life Stages Turkey and Barley food today and will gradually increase it vs. puppy food over the next few days until they are totally on Turkey and Barley. Their eating behavior has improved. They still wander off and come back but they are coming back quicker and usually finish all the food I put down for them. They are up to about 3/4 of a cup per puppy three times a day. So about 2 1/4 cups a day per puppy. Seems like a lot, but they are eating it, aren't fat, and burning up a lot of energy playing hard for longer periods of time. Today's new obstacle was a mesh tunnel made for cats who don't get to go outside freely. The ends that you can put in to zip it shut are long gone, but the puppies thought it was a lot of fun! Yesterday my brother flipped the wooden beer box on its side with the hinged lid open. See video below. The puppies thought that was great fun too! Imagine that! I took each puppy to the yard today to run around for a few minutes. There was much jealous carrying on from those in the pen, but everyone got his or her turn and had fun exploring the great outdoors! There is a little video of each puppy enjoying the yard below. There are a lot of photos to share including the 7 Week Mug Shots. Enjoy! Until next time.... 
9/17/2020 1 Comment Long Day. Good Puppies! As predicted, this was a long day for the puppies, but they were troopers! The day started as usual with breakfast and play time on the patio, then a snooze and some more play time before time to head out! There are a couple cute videos below of the morning. Then it was time to load up the car to head for Columbia! There was much carrying on for about 5 minutes and then everyone settled in and really didn't make another peep till we arrived at a little before 1 PM. I did find evidence of two puppies vomiting when I opened the back upon arrival, but they hadn't made any noise about it! Everything is curbside so we didn't get to go in to watch the BAER tests. After about an hour, the Vet and a Vet student came out with the puppies. There were no surprises in the results. We have 9 out of 10 ears that hear and the staff pronounced them the highlight of their week! They were all well behaved and did not need to be sedated! Pretty, sweet, funny, Rita is our uni. She hears in her right ear but not in her left. She's going to make someone a fantastic family companion. We love her to pieces because she makes us laugh all the time and she is so pretty to look at! After the Imagine BAER tests, we continued to hang out in the parking lot for about another hour while our friend, Linda's, 7 month old Mini Bull Terrier - Buzz, got his! He's a handsome, funny boy who wasn't sure what to make of those spotted pups in the crate behind him! He can hear too! There was little doubt of that, but now it's official! While we waited lots of people asked to take photos of the puppies! I didn't get them out of the crate though because they haven't had any vaccinations yet and I didn't want to risk exposing them to anything. So all told, those puppies were in the crate from 10:30 this morning till about 5:15 this afternoon, except to get out to be BAER tested. No food or water. There might have been one pee in the crate when we got home but nothing else. There was a bit of yelling by Jo Jo and by Rita when we were getting close to St. Louis, but they all settled down again and were asleep when I pulled into the garage. Very good puppies! Imagine that! My brother arrived around 1PM so he and Dave helped unload puppies to the patio where they were treated to a meal which they gobbled down. Then we let them play till they dropped which took nearly 2 hours! Lots of pent up energy! Baili and Rhani were displeased that their dinner was delayed, and I'm sure my brother was hungry too because he left OH at 6AM Eastern time and didn't stop for lunch on his way. Human dinners were delayed till almost 8PM! We all survived though! The puppies took another big snooze in their inside pen and now they are back on their patio for after dark play time and going strong. I decided not to feed them again tonight as that will just further mess up their schedule. We'll begin again with breakfast tomorrow! Oh and another good news piece today....the only thing broken on my lens is the filter. Dave is going to go to the last camera shop in St. Louis tomorrow to get it replaced. That will be a lot cheaper than buying a whole new zoom lens! Several cute videos from today follow: "Teeter Fun", "Play with Me", "Our Return Trip to Grandma", and "Watching the US Open". Enjoy! Until next time....
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Toni LinstedtI like to keep a diary of the puppies as much for myself as for prospective puppy buyers and interested friends. Sadly my blogs for Lucy's and Baili's litters are no longer available due to legacy systems, but I saved them off as pdf's and was reviewing them last night. It was a good refresher on all kinds of things and brought back lots of good memories. Looking forward to Imagine memories too! Archives
January 2021
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